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Times Jumbo Cryptic Crossword 1356

This was a trickier puzzle than recent weeks, I felt. Indeed, there are a few solutions I’m still not entirely sure about. Here is my completed grid nonetheless, along with explanations where I have them.

Answer: TULLE, a delicate thin silk network fabric (i.e. “net”). Solution is T (i.e. “profit finally”, i.e. the last letter of the word “profit”) followed by ULLE (i.e. “extracted to void margins”, i.e. the word “pulled” with the first and last letters – the margins – removed), like so: T-ULLE.

14. Bulbous item – suddenly reveal one held between legs (6,5)

Answer: SPRING ONION (i.e. “bulbous item”). Solution starts with SPRING (i.e. “suddenly reveal”). The remainder is derived by placing I (i.e. “one”) “between” ON and ON (i.e. “legs” – in cricket, leg-side is also referred to as on-side). The solution is therefore SPRING-ON-(I)-ON.

15. Take courage from sniper eliminating Guam’s leader (5)

Answer: UNMAN, which is to deprive of fortitude (i.e. “take courage”). Solution is GUNMAN (i.e. “sniper”) with the letter G removed (i.e. “eliminating Guam’s leader”, i.e. the first letter of Guam).

Answer: I VOW TO THEE MY COUNTRY (i.e. “hymn”). “Perhaps” indicates anagram. Solution is an anagram of NOTEWORTHY VICOMTE wrapped “round” U (i.e. “bend”) and finished with Y (a recognised abbreviation of “year”), like so: IVOWTOTHEEMYCO(U)NTR-Y. I had to refer to the BBC’s Songs of Praise webpage for this, as my knowledge of hymns doesn’t stretch much beyond the ones we had to sing at school, such as All Things Bright And Beautiful and He’s Got The Whole World In His Pants.

Answer: GUIDON, which is a kind of pennant (i.e. “standard”). Solution is GUID (i.e. “Good Scots”, i.e. Scottish word for “good”) followed by ON (i.e. “side” – think back a couple of clues to how leg-side in cricket was sometimes referred to as “on”), like so: GUID-ON.

29. One ancient ruler the other king backed (6)

Answer: XERXES, who ruled Persia 486-465BC (i.e. “ancient ruler”). Solution is SEX (i.e. a bit of “the other”) and REX (i.e. “king”) reversed (i.e. “backed”), like so: XER-XES. Yes, I have Frank Miller to thank for that one rather than any deep knowledge of ancient history.

31. How long it takes to cook in can (5,4)

Answer: DOING TIME. Solution satisfies both “how long it takes to cook” (albeit weakly – I’m not 100% about this) and “in can” (i.e. in prison).

Answer: NEEDLEWOMAN (i.e. “sewer” – yes, this fooled me for longer than I’d care to admit). “Ridiculously” indicates anagram. Solution is an anagram of NEW ONE MADE wrapped around L (i.e. “large inside” – L being a recognised abbreviation of “large”), like so: NEED(L)EWOMAN.

Answer: RATE-CAPPING, e.g. when central government limits the council tax charged by local authorities (i.e. “restriction of authority”). Solution is RAPPING (i.e. “conversing”) wrapped “about” A TEC (i.e. “an investigator”, “tec” being an abbreviated form of “detective”), like so: R(A-TEC)APPING.

2. Certainly no song for a wake (7)

Answer: LULLABY. Solution satisfies multiple meanings of “wake”, for example “the state of being awake” and “a vigil beside a corpse”, and how a lullaby would be inappropriate in each case.

3. Quite attentive to personal hygiene (5)

Answer: CLEAN. Solution satisfies both “quite” (as in “rather” or “very”) and “attentive to personal hygiene.

Answer: ADULATORY (i.e. “admiring”). Solution is A (a recognised abbreviation for “area”) and DULY (i.e. “in appropriate manner”) wrapped around (i.e. “circling”) A TOR (i.e. “a hill”), like so: A-DUL(A-TOR)Y. This took me a lot longer to figure out than it ought to have.

11. A storage unit with two round feet? (5)

Answer: IAMBI, the plural form of “iambus”, which is a foot (a division of a line of poetry) comprising two syllables (i.e. “feet”). Don’t feel too bad if you’re still none the wiser. Unless you are a poet who cares about this stuff you can afford to give less of a shit. Solution is A MB (i.e. “a storage unit”, i.e. a megabyte of computer storage) placed in II (i.e. “two” in Roman numerals), like so: I-A-MB-I.

12. Musical comedy number upset one tenant (2,2,7)

Answer: NO NO NANETTE (i.e. “musical comedy”). Solution is NO (short for “number”), followed by an anagram (indicated by “upset”) of ONE TENANT.

19. Forecast unlikely to require insight? (7)

Answer: OUTLOOK (i.e. “forecast”). Solution is a play on how “insight” could be seen as an opposite of “outlook”.

Answer: OVIPAROUS, which describes an egg-laying animal (i.e. “as some layers”). Solution is O (a recognised abbreviation of “over” used in cricket – yes, folks, more cricket!) followed by VI (“six” in Roman numerals) and PAROS (one of around 14 million “Greek islands”) wrapped around (indicated by “that ships”) U (the chemical symbol for “uranium”), like so: O-VI-PARO(U)S. Looking at clumsy wording of the clue, and also considering the words hanging off this solution, it would have been easier for the setter to pick a different word!

Answer: NATALIE (i.e. “female” – I’m still not keen on first names being used as solutions, but I guess nothing else fitted the letters given). Solution is TAN (i.e. “brown”) reversed (indicated by “rebuffed”) followed by A LIE (i.e. “not true”), like so: NAT-A-LIE.

44. Minute man flanked by two aces in republic? (7)

Answer: AMERICA (i.e. “republic”). Solution is M (a recognised abbreviation of “minute”) and ERIC (i.e. “man”) placed in the middle of A A (i.e. “two aces”), like so: A(M-ERIC)A.

46. Ruling that Frenchman must come in for good rest (7)

Answer: REMNANT (i.e. “rest”, as in a remainder).This is another one where I cannot work out what the setter is doing, which could indicate I’ve not got this one right. I believe the wordplay suggests we take REGENT (i.e. “ruling”), replace G (i.e. “good”) with… er… yeah. Buggered.

48. Current despondency interminable in White House (5)

Answer: IGLOO (i.e. “white house”). Solution is I (which represents electrical “current”) followed by GLOO (i.e. “despondency interminable”, i.e. the word “gloom” with the last letter removed), like so: I-GLOO.

So that’s it for another week. This was not a classic, for my money, as there was a little too much reliance on cricket and – I suspect – using foreign words to get the job done. Still, each to their own.

And now a message from The Department of Getting One’s Excuses In Early: I won’t be as quick with the next couple of grids – if I get around to them at all – as I’ll be spending most of the Christmas period getting fabulously pissed. I’m sure you can cope.